Student and Teacher Discounts in Spain/Portugal?

It never hurts to try for a discount. What I know is that when my daughters were students, they did get discounts. When I asked about teacher discounts, I was told that you had to be a teacher from an EU country. However, it's the sort of thing that might vary with the person sitting at the admission counter. Example: After being told that senior discounts were for EU citizens only, we didn't ask at one place in Urbino. The sweet young thing at the register asked if we were over 60. We replied in the affirmative, but added that we were American, so didn't qualify for the reduction. She told us she loved Americans and charged the lower price. That's not the only time someone shrugged off the rules for us.

Get the student card as some places offer concessions. Before you buy the teacher card, isn't there a list of where it would be valid?

I have never heard of teacher discounts in Europe. Is this an American thing? Spain and Portugal are both broke and may take the view that if you can afford to holiday there, you can afford to pay entry to wherever you plan on going. Entry to most places isn't very expensive and the cost of the card may outweigh the savings made.

Most places offer discounts for over 60s, but I assume that you are not that old! I have never heard the age limit be affected by place of residence.

@Jennifer
We lived in the UK for a year; and it's true that we were never asked about citizenship when requesting an OAP discount there. Same for Switzerland. However, we were asked in Italy. Can't remember about Spain.

What does the student card cost? And exact what is it? When our son tried in Europe he got by with his high school id card one time and his university ID the next time. It is my understanding that teachers often get in free if with a group of students but they have to be EU citizens. I am not aware of any discounts for US based teachers. The only place we found that US citizens consistently received a senior discount was in Spain. The rest of Europe was restricted to EU citizens. But this just our experiences and our son's experiences is close to 20 years. So things could have changed.

I am a teacher and I bought "discount" STA teacher ID cards the first few times I went to Europe. I stopped purchasing them when I finally realized that there aren't teacher discounts to be had anywhere we had gone. Students can get discounts in some places, mostly based on age, but for teachers, not so much! When you look at the lists of places it can be used at the discounts are extremely small...2 euros off, 10% off, etc. Many of them are specific places you may not be visiting anyway. Most major museums and sights don't accept these cards. Sorry!

Anita, reminded me. Our high school have a beloved German teacher who was a war bride. Every summer she would return to her home town in Germany with a group of her German students from high school. She had developed over the many years a group of host families who would take students for about eight weeks. And, of course, the host families only spoke German. During the weekday she would meet the students at the town square for a variety of sightseeing and cultural activities. The one item that she was very, very strict about was when they were entering a museum, gallery, etc., there would be no words spoken, comments, or whisper until clear of the ticket window. Because she was native speaking, carry a German teacher's card they all got into these venues for free since they assume she was leading a group of German students. The other thing was that parents had to sign a statement stating we had no objection to our students drink beer or wine with the host families, and no objection to top less beaches. It was an fantastic experience for our high school junior. Unfortunately she had retired when our second son came through the high school five years later.